Steve Lyons, baseball announcer, fired by FOX for racially insensitive comment

I've got your racially insecure comments right here, Suzuki.

 

Yeah...that would be what I just said.

 

FOX is being unreasonable, and I think EVERYONE is jumping the gun here. A suspension may have been in order, but not this.

There's a big difference between being racially insensitive, and racist. If anything, his comments were racially insensitive, which there's nothing wrong with. It was a harmless joke. It didn't hurt anyone, and no one's life was changed because of it (Except for Steve Lyons).

His comments were obviously not based on hate. That's the difference between racial insensitivity, and racism.

If Steve Lyons had made such a comment to a white guy, it would be perfectly acceptable. But the fact that he said it to a Hispanic makes it *gasp* worse, because for some reason, there's an untrue racial stereotype of theft by Hispanics.

It's the same thing with hate crimes. If you're going to throw a rock at someone, you better make damn sure they're the same color as you.

If anything, I think it's the people who made a fuss about the comment that advocated the stereotype, by bringing attention to it.

 

Lyons could have been spoken to before this incident, we don't know what might have been said to him if these conversations took place. I'm sure Lyons wasn't Mr. Racial Harmony before this. Termination could have been the end result of a step-wise disciplinary process as it is in many corporations.

To the point with it. How do we know his comment wasn't based on some degree of hate, or resentment? He was engaged in a dialogue involving Hispanic culture, and something about him made him bring up a negative stereotype, in humor perhaps. But humor isn't a cover. If Trent Lott said he was just making a joke to his buddies about the town negro, he might think it legitimate humor. Not many other people would. It wasn't funny. It was an unprofessional thing to say, that suggests some kind of negative feelings towards hispanics. He could have said anything, any number of positive things. How about "despite my own linguistic ignorance, baseball is a better game because of the contributions made by Hispanic culture." Sounds much better than "where is my wallet? There must be a Latino in the room. Ha ha thats funny because they all steal things." Fox was right to fire him simply because it was unprofessional.

Note: Throwing a rock at someone a different race is not a hate crime. There needs to be some proof of racial motivation. Such as saying "die ****" and throwing a rock at a black person. Simply throwing the rock won't be a hate crime.

And bringing attention to something is not inherently advocating it.

 

I disagree. I think the fact that he was honest and comfortable enough to say it straight to a Hispanic person is a sign that it wasn't based in hate.

 

Tre, the guy in the booth with Lyons was his friend. Did you get that?

And no, a sportscaster and politician using race is NOT equal.

That is a ridiculous statement.

Politicians are representatives and have financial and lawmaking authority.

The sportscaster is a representative of the corporation. As such, they had the right to fire him. However, the guy who the remark was directed at even said he wasn't offended and said it was a joke.

 

I completely agree with you, no racist ever says anything to the face of the person they hate. Whoops...

Yeah, I got that.

On the first read in fact.

But it doesn't matter.

Lyons doesn't know the millions of people watching the game.

Don't under estimate the power of mass media.

Politicians are at least held accountable with elections.

Fox fired Lyons, but they didn't have to.

Nothing guarantees the accountability of a sportscaster.

You make random paragraphs.